“I made a conscious effort to focus on television so I could stay in Los Angeles, so I wasn't on a location all over the world doing movies,” he said. “It was going to be easier to have as close to a normal life as I could.”

Lowe, here with his boys and wife, Sheryl, said he has to remember he's not "in the best friend business" as a dad.

"He was out of my life on a daily basis at you know, four, four and a half. So it was all of those things that weekend dads do and summers,” he said.

Lowe couldn't imagine being separated from his own children for such long stretches, saying, "there's nobody I would rather be with." But that doesn't mean he has always found parenting easy.

“For me, the battle is finding the balance between wanting to spend time with my boys and then having enough perspective to still be the disciplinarian and, like, not be in the best friend business,” he said.

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"I put the time in," said Lowe, who's headed towards an empty nest as his younger son is set to leave for college.

"I don't always win that battle because I enjoy them so much, but you don't need your dad to be your best friend."

On the verge of becoming an empty nester as his younger son prepares to head to college, Lowe says he has no regrets about how he and his wife, Sheryl, raised their boys, and hopes their childhood will influence their own views of fatherhood in the future.

"I put in the time. I did it. I can't imagine what it would be like to have guilt around that and then have your kids have problems in adulthood. That would be devastating to me,” he said. “I mean, everybody's going to go through challenges but at least Sheryl and I know that we did truly the best we could."